2009 Sydney-Hobart:WOXI vs Alfa and more

[Guest62110524]

doug looks like your man is parked

[Doug Lord]

sailed into a hole-or? just when things were looking up

[Doug Lord]

WOXI back up to 14+-others much slower...... Go Wild Oats!

Too bad the finish will be in the dark-at least it looks that way now....

[Doug Lord]

Wild Oats down to 15m behind Alfa and going twice as fast!(from 27 behind earlier!)

Go Wild Oats!
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9:00 EST- The listings on the website show Wild Oats in the lead even though technically she is still 13m behind Alfa. This must be because Oats is much closer to land and in order to get to the same position Alfa will have to tack. WOXI still much faster.....

Just changed again-a glitch?

[Guest62110524]

dunno the tides, but will be strong in there, mind you Leopard is going really slow, anything at all may happen, long fickle route ahead

yes drag racing A and Oats, L, is trying something else
see the wind, L is hoping for better angle

yes looks like L has made a mistake, not covering Oats adn going flyer
But it aint over yet
cant see tracker now, but L has course 220, , so she may reach in faster, dunno hard to tell without weather info

[Doug Lord]

As of 10:19 EST the computer predicts WOXI will win by 5 minutes! Wow!

Go Wild Oats!

[Guest62110524]

not really correct Doug. Oats is still 12 miles behind on same course
L is flat off now, not reaching, which,ll slow her, the only hope for L is if she can come on the wind in heavy air later tonight, but the 40 mile cushion has gone I would not make a bet on line now

[Doug Lord]

Originally Posted by whoosh

not really correct Doug. Oats is still 12 miles behind on same course
L is flat off now, not reaching, which,ll slow her, the only hope for L is if she can come on the wind in heavy air later tonight, but the 40 mile cushion has gone I would not make a bet on line now

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Whoosh, if you look at the numbers on the far right on the S&H site,they predict the estimated finish time. When I checked earlier the computer had WOXI by 5 minutes. Now it has Alfa by 20 minutes. This prediction is not related to the current distance shown between the boats as best I can tell and it changes a lot. If you watch those numbers as they go up the Derwent I'll bet they'll be even more frequent changes...

Go Wild Oats!

[Chris Ostlind]

10 PM MST

Wild Oats... 5.4 kts. and 79 miles to finish

Alfa... 14 kts. and 65 miles to finish


Here comes that deadly, Vincent Price minor chord organ music... but for which boat? The interesting part of this is that Alfa can easily cover WO once they turn right into much more confined waters... provided that they even need to do that.

At current speeds, Alfa is going to open a sizeable gap on WO while the latter is just about parked. This close to the gun and every mile, every knot of boatspeed, counts big time.

[Guest62110524]

that is true, the Brits are going to be a bit dissapointed for taking that flyer but now have more boat speed than Oats
What has shown I think, that A has improved since the hull mod
I know ole Croakey Crichton, owner A, still that is confidential)

[capt vimes]

alfa already rounded the island and heading for hobart with 28 nm to the finish line... oats trailing alfa by 16 nm and at the same speed...
they caught up good on alfa since yesterday evening CET...

i'd love to participate in that race once in my life...

[Doug Lord]

Congratulations to Alfa Romeo! And to Reichel-Pugh the designers of both Alfa and Wild Oats! And to CBTF whose patented Canting Ballast Twin Foil technology has allowed such breakthru designs as Alfa and Wild Oats!

1 Alfa Romeo Finished 02:09:02:10 11.0
Neville Crichton NZ 28 Dec, 10:02pm

2 Wild Oats XI 43° 03' S 147° 24' E 10.6 10.3 340 02:10:42:23 10.7
Mark Richards (5) NSW 0nm NW of Iron Pot
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Neville Crichton's RP100 Alfa Romeo passing Tasman Island
ROLEX/Kurt Arrigo
Neville Crichton’s New Zealand supermaxi Alfa Romeo has taken line honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, crossing the finish line opposite Castray Esplanade on the Derwent River at 22:02:10hrs for an elapsed time of 2 days, 9 hours, 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Averaging 10 knots in a reasonably consistent N/NW breeze on the river, the silver maxi made easy work of the final stretch. At last the seasoned crew of twenty two Australian, New Zealand and British round the world and America’s Cup sailors could stop looking over their shoulders.

Crichton led the race from the early hours of Sunday morning when she opened a 20 mile lead on Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI and Mike Slade’s British supermaxi ICAP Leopard.

The win is sweet revenge for the New Zealand yachtsman. Four years ago these same, near identical Reichel Pugh designed maxis staged a dramatic dual in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart.

That year it was Wild Oats XI’s turn, beating Alfa Romeo across the line by 49 minutes. Ironically, then it was first use of a wind shift off the NSW coast that gave Wild Oats XI her decisive break. This year it was Crichton’s turn to get the jump, again off the NSW coastline.

After that heartbreaking near miss, Crichton took Alfa Romeo to Europe to campaign on the northern hemisphere circuit. This victory marks his triumphant return to the Australian ocean classic.

The Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats XI still had 16 miles to go when Alfa Romeo crossed the line, with ICAP Leopard a further 24 miles astern.

Crichton’s victory brings to an end an extraordinary run of four straight line honours wins for Wild Oats XI, including a rare double line honours and handicap win, plus a new course record set in 2005.

This is the second line honours victory for Crichton. He won in 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart with a previous Alfa Romeo.

Despite the late hour, one of the biggest spectator fleets in years, accompanied Alfa Romeo up the final few miles of the 628 nautical mile course, while a sizeable crowd gathered along the foreshore to welcome the victorious crew.

Tonight’s win caps an extraordinary tally of 143 line honours wins worldwide for the 100 footer. This year it has set new records in the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic and the TransPac race.Fleet positions are available via Yacht Tracker at: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com